Ameriprise Financial Inc. Sells 3,912,811 Shares of The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• Ameriprise Financial Inc. reduced its stake in The AES Corporation by 13.7%, now owning approximately 3.46% of the company valued at $306.2 million after selling nearly 4 million shares.
• Analysts have mixed views on AES, with target prices ranging from $14.00 to $112.00, leading to a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".
• AES reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.51, exceeding analyst expectations, but experienced a 3.0% decline in revenue year-over-year.

Ameriprise Financial Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 13.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,658,308 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 3,912,811 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned approximately 3.46% of AES worth $306,211,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in AES by 33.5% in the first quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,880 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 974 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in AES by 5.1% in the first quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 20,904 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 1,006 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC grew its stake in AES by 4.0% in the first quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 26,290 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $327,000 after acquiring an additional 1,011 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 1.1% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 94,686 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,176,000 after buying an additional 1,012 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 5.0% during the first quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 24,752 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $307,000 after buying an additional 1,173 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $13.37. The stock had a trading volume of 6,933,001 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,303,400. The firm has a market cap of $9.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.42, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $12.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The AES Corporation has a 52 week low of $9.46 and a 52 week high of $20.30.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%.The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. The business's revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. AES's payout ratio is presently 49.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group cut AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their target price for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Barclays lifted their target price on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Argus reissued a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $24.67.

AES Profile

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market.